00:00Musik
00:24So Mr Pegg, thank you very much for agreeing to speak to us
00:27and especially for this film
00:28What first of all was it that attracted you to the project, was it Alex Gibney's presence
00:35or was it a more personal relationship that you had with George Orwell and his works?
00:41Well in fact it came as a big huge gift from Universal who approached Alex Gibney to inquire
00:53if he would be producing such a film around Orwell and Alex called me and I asked him if I
01:02would have basically the freedom to do the film I want
01:07and he assured me that yes that was the case and of course I say yes because that's not something
01:14you get every day to have access to the totality of such an author body of work
01:22and Orwell being that recognised figure in the whole world to become an adjective
01:31so that's not an offer that you can refuse
01:36The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world
01:41I'm going to set down what I dare not say aloud to anyone
01:45And what was it about Orwell and going through these archives that made you, I don't know, anything that touched
01:53you personally?
01:54Because I mean I imagine because you fled Haiti at a very young age you were familiar with the language
02:00of totalitarianism
02:01Well not only that I grew up with what we call new speak, you know, the use of language in
02:09order to hide your real intention
02:12I mean that's an approach that you have in economy, in business, in all sort of part of life
02:21and I grew up indeed coming from Haiti
02:25you recognise very early on that words could have two meanings
02:29when some government are talking about democracy and everywhere else
02:35and then in your country they are supporting the dictatorship
02:39you know that I learned very early on
02:42the Duvalier dictatorship who stayed more than 35 years
02:47it was only with the support of the USA
02:52and part of European government
02:54so on one side you are talking about democracy
02:58on the other side you are making deals with government or authoritarian regime
03:05who are, you know, keeping their people down
03:08so that contradiction
03:11I was aware of it very early on in my life
03:15I was wondering because there's a quote that stood out for me in the film
03:18it's when Orwell talks about Animal Farm
03:20and he says that it's the first time that he fuses his political intent with his artistic intent
03:26and I have to admit when I heard that quote
03:29I thought this sounds a lot like what your approach to filmmaking could be
03:34is that the case?
03:35Well it is, you know, when I started in cinema even before
03:39you know, it was like you couldn't mix any political ambition with art
03:47you know, art was supposed to be something special, something pure
03:51the same thing with entertainment
03:54everything became entertainment
03:56even news became entertainment
03:58so, but I never believed that
04:01it's not because it's entertainment that you can't put, you know, more weight
04:06in terms of the content
04:09and you will find a form to make it, you know, cinema in my case
04:14and I always believed that for me
04:17filmmaking is a political
04:21I would say
04:23I had always a political intention
04:27in making my films
04:29so, and I was glad that it was also Orwell's intention from the start
04:36because, you know, what he basically says is that
04:40you know, the attitude to say
04:42well, I am neutral
04:44or I don't take position
04:45is actually a political position
04:48you know, there is not such a thing that, you know, I don't have an opinion
04:54or I can't act about what is happening in the place I live
04:59no, you are a citizen
05:00you know, democracy means that you are an informed and educated citizen
05:06that takes part in the affair of your city or the society
05:12The words democracy, freedom, justice
05:17have each of them several different meanings
05:20which cannot be reconciled with one another
05:29Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful
05:33The love in the air, I've never seen anything like it
05:35Now we see how rapidly
05:38the degradation of democracy could happen
05:42even in the most important beacon of democracy that the United States was
05:50and it's not anymore
05:52So, I always believe in the value of fighting for freedom of speech
05:59freedom to be able to vote
06:02It's a luxury in most parts of the world
06:05But here in Europe we leave it as it's, you know, perfectly natural
06:11and it will grow by itself
06:14and you have to do nothing to defend it
06:16No, you have to work on it every day
06:18Obviously, we see Trump, we see Putin
06:20but one thing to show its breadth
06:23we also see an enormous amount of European leaders
06:26we see Maloney, we see Viktor Orban
06:28Bush
06:29Bush as well
06:30and also Eric Zemmour at one point as well
06:33How do you, in your opinion, view Europe's reaction to the rise of totalitarianism
06:40compared to the US, for example?
06:42Well, that's the thing
06:43European sometimes not, you know, it's always bad to say European
06:49as if there is one unity
06:51but in most countries you can see that there is still a denial
06:56you know, there is a denial that can never happen here
07:01but we forgot how many years of Berlusconi that we had
07:04you know, it's a typical other example of how it can happen in Europe
07:11So people make fun of Donald Trump
07:13but I don't see, I just see it as an exaggeration of behaviour that I've seen in Europe
07:22you know, the same kind of, you know, use of language to destroy people is being used
07:29it's just a little bit more polite, a little bit more intellectual sometimes
07:34you know, with more general culture, you know
07:38but the words mean what they mean
07:42so, and you could see a lot of things that happened in the US
07:46at some point, you know, five or ten years later
07:49they happened in Europe
07:50you know, that have been my experience
07:52On that note, Mr. Peck, thank you very much for your time
07:54Thank you very much
07:55Thank you
07:56Thank you
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